


Unbreakable Bonds

by perletwo



Category: Batgirl (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Community: heroines_fest, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-06
Updated: 2013-09-06
Packaged: 2017-12-25 19:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/956688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perletwo/pseuds/perletwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cassandra learns about mothers and daughters on Take Your Daughter to Work Day. Originally posted to heroines_fest in October of 2009.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unbreakable Bonds

**Author's Note:**

> Much fudging of timelines here; for the sake of the story pretend all those characters' circumstances (Steph back, Cass with the Outsiders, Selina post-childbirth) overlapped ever so briefly at some point?

Cassandra Cain sat in a hard plastic chair in the waiting room of the Gotham General emergency room, watching the world go by. And, being a proper member of the Bat-clan, brooding.  
  
Life was so much simpler before language came into her world, she thought. Through her understanding of body language she could read most any situation, cut down to its essentials. Bring words into it and people just wanted to _complicate_ things.  
  
Like now. The waiting room and exam rooms were crowded, as Gotham hospitals tended to be. But it seemed to Cass they would be a lot less cramped if half the nurses didn't have shadows following them around.  
  
Finally, in a stroke of good luck, Nurse Brown happened to pass through, shadowed by Stephanie. Cass rose and snagged her friend by the back of her hoodie. "Hey."  
  
"Hey there! Mom, I'll catch up with you in a sec, okay?" Steph waved to her mother, who waved back and bustled down the hall with efficiency and, Cass noticed, just a slight edge of relief.  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
Steph plopped into the molded plastic chair next to Cass. " _Thank_ you! Oooh, it feels good to sit. I tellya, I love that woman, but she can drive me absolutely _nuts_ like nobody else. Well, okay, Tim. And sometimes Bruce. And sometimes you -"  
  
"What are you doing here?" Cass repeated in the exact same tone.  
  
"I could ask you the same question, pal o' mine. Now, you might be hurt, but since I've seen you shrug off full-on _stabbings_ -"  
  
"What are you doing here?"  
  
"Why yes, Cass, I'm _fine,_ no injuries here, thanks so much for asking, I know how you worry -"  
  
"Stephanie!" Crystal Brown bustled back down the hall and beckoned.  
  
"Oops, gotta go!" Steph bounced up and raced after her mother, leaving Cass with her brows knit in confusion.  
  
Katana - Tatsu - came out of an exam room with an arm (not her sword arm, thankfully) in a sling. She was very pale, and Thunder - Anissa - had an arm around her supportively. Anissa settled Tatsu in the seat Stephanie had left vacant and strode off, saying something about finessing paperwork.  
  
This close up, Cass could see Tatsu's jaw was clenched. She reached out to tap Tatsu's shoulder tentatively. "Okay?"  
  
"I want to get out of here," Tatsu said, not looking at Cass, whose eyes followed hers.  
  
"Too many girls," she said, suddenly understanding, and Tatsu turned to look at her.  
  
"Yes. It - bothers me." Several of the girls running around were just the age her twins would have been. An Asian girl or two had even startled Tatsu into forgetting their loss, just for a second. Just long enough to snag and scratch at her heart.  
  
Just then a party burst through the emergency room doors with much wailing and screaming. A burly man carried a little girl in jeans and a pink sweater, an arm and leg twisted at grotesque angles, and bloody patches blooming through her clothing. The girl was crying and whimpering softly through short shallow breaths; Cass recognized shock in the condition of her pupils.  
  
The screams came from the woman accompanying them. Tatsu jumped up and went to stand beside the woman in hysterics.  
  
Nurse Brown came round the corner at a run, assessed the girl's condition and led the man and girl into an exam area. Tatsu put an arm around the woman's hunched shoulders and spoke to her in a voice too soft for Cass to hear. In a few moments the volume of the woman's wails lowered, then subsided completely.  
  
Cass watched the two women - mothers - closely, automatically committing each detail of their faces and bodies to memory. Greedy for information about emotions she'd never been the object of herself.  
  
Stephanie, eyes wide, dropped back into Tatsu's chair. "Whew. Whatta mess."  
  
"What are you doing here?" Cass repeated patiently.  
  
"Aww, man..."  
  
"What are you doing here?" Steph was close to breaking, she could see it.  
  
Her friend blew a lock of blonde hair out of her face. "You'll laugh." Cassandra just stared.  
  
"It's dumb, okay?" Cass waited her out. "It's this thing called Take Your Daughter To Work Day. Like a holiday, but not really. Stupid made-up fake-ass holiday. The idea is, like, girls are supposed to go with their moms to their jobs, follow them around, be all impressed with how important and girl-powery their moms are and be filled with healthy self-esteem. Or something."  
  
A corner of Cass' mouth quirked up, but she said nothing.  
  
"I know, I know, I'm way old for this stuff, and thanks to the Bruce Tutoring Project I probably already know as much about EMT work as she does, but she's been on this like togetherness kick since I, umm, since I got back from Africa? And it is a day off from school, and it kinda seemed easier to humor her than to argue -" Cass was smiling. "What?"  
  
"You like your mother," she said.  
  
"Well, _yeah._ We get on each other's nerves, but, I dunno. You know about my dad. Mom, though, she just put our lives back together after he went up. Out of _nothing._ " Steph shrugged, then studied Cass' face. "Is this okay to talk about? I mean, you and your mom -"  
  
"It's fine." Cass nodded. "Nice."  
  
"Okay. Well, Mom wasn't always sunshine and roses about it, but she did what had to be done for us. And she did it legally, and without any big-time dreaming like Dad always did, you know? I was probably a total brat who made it all harder for her, too. But I learned a lot - good and bad - from watching her when I was growing up, without even realizing." Steph shrugged. "So this? It's okay."  
  
Cass nodded, and Tatsu returned with Anissa in tow. "Cassandra. May we go?" Grinning, Cass stood and waved goodbye. Steph tossed her a jaunty salute back.

* * *

  
On that night's patrol, Batgirl observed a stealthy figure in black making an illegal entry into a somewhat rundown store specializing in estate jewelry.  
  
Not Catwoman's usual caliber of target, she thought, and felt a twinge of disappointment on Bruce's behalf. Batman truly believed Selina Kyle was over her thieving ways, and though he'd never explained to her the basis for that belief, Batgirl's faith in him was strong enough to extend to Catwoman.  
  
 _Maybe she's just keeping her skills sharp?_ suggested the angel on Cass' shoulder.  
  
 _Then she won't mind a little company,_ the devil on the opposite shoulder retorted. Batgirl dove from the rooftop in less time than it took to complete the thought. She crashed the window and caught Catwoman in her arms on the downward roll. Something glittery-gold flew from the cat's hands as they wrestled, and Cass caught it without looking.  
  
"Lemme _go!_ " Selina threw a punch where Batgirl's head no longer rested, and one of Cass' hands almost casually diverted a kick. "Give it _back!"_  
  
 _It?_ echoed Cass' irritating angel, and Batgirl spared a half-second to survey the store. Catwoman had passed up a dozen bigger, gaudier, more valuable targets for one soft-gold bauble. Against her ~~better~~ ~~worse~~ better judgment, she asked, "Why?"  
  
Catwoman lunged. "Whatttayamean _why?_ " Cass dodged the attack easily, and Selina drew herself up short, panting for breath. "Why? ...why..." Confusion radiated from her body; then she looked at the thin streak of gold hanging from Cass' hands and something broke in her eyes. The set of her body shifted subtly, in a way Cass recognized from earlier in the day. "It's - it's important, that's all. It's _mine._ "  
  
Beneath her mask Cass' mouth worked, trying to form an answer to all the information she had absorbed in that instant. Then sirens wailed nearby, and with a screech of frustration Selina launched herself out the broken window.  
  
Cursing under her breath, Cass estimated the time before the cops arrived, then took a moment to study the object in her hand. From her utility belt she counted out the cash needed to pay for the jewelry, placed it in the open case, and added a business card with the Bat-emblem on it. Her printed "Sorry" wasn't her best effort, but time was short.

* * *

  
Selina dropped through the skylight into her apartment, cursing, crying and shaking. Not from the fight, but from her sense of lack of control throughout it. What had gotten into her?  
  
She didn't know. All she knew was that when that one perfect shining thing caught her eye in the shop earlier that day every cell in her body told her she had to have it. She could easily have paid the pittance the jewelry dealer was asking for it then and there, but something in her rebelled - insisted that she shouldn't have to pay for it at all. It was _hers,_ and it was the most important thing in the world.  
  
She staggered into the bathroom, pulling off bits of costume as she went, and stopped dead.  
  
The gold locket was hanging from one of the light sconces beside her medicine cabinet.  
  
Hand shaking, she pulled it down, studied it. Looked at the Bat-card, read the shaky print on the back.  
  
 _Hapy Take Yor Doter To Work Day._  
  
Selina opened the locket. A photograph was pasted inside, of a chubby baby with bright eyes, a shock of black hair and a mouth wide open in laughter.  
  
Something clicked in place inside her, and though she didn't understand it, it drove off the shaky, panicky feeling she'd had since first seeing the locket. She sat down on the vanity bench, hugging the locket to her chest.  
  
"Thank you," she said, aiming her voice in the general direction of the ceiling. Trust a Bat to stick around to watch her good deed for the day.  
  
From her hiding place on the roof, Cass grinned wide under her mask before swooping away to resume patrol.


End file.
